The invention relates to single lever, two cycle, rack and pinion corkscrew machines and translating driver machines having an inclined gear rack with a spiral radius pinion gear. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The lore of corkscrews is well chronicled in literature published by patent offices and collectors both in print and over the internet the world around. (See for example, Peters, Ferd. Mechanical Corkscrews, Their Evolution, Actions, and Patents. Holland: Peters, 1999; Bull, Donald, The Ultimate Corkscrew Book (Schiffer Book for Collectors.) 1999 Schiffer Publishing, Ltd.; ISBN: 0764307010; D""Errico, Nicholas American Corkscrew Patents, Conn.1993; Wallis, Fletcher, British Corkscrew Patents from 1795, Vernier Press England, 1998; Watney and Babbidge, Corkscrews for Collectors, Sotheby Parke Bennet, 1981 ISBN 0 85667 113 4 and O""Leary, Fred 1000 Patented Ways to Open a Bottle Schiffer Publishing, Ltd. 1997; ISBN: 0764300180 and on the internet at:  less than bullworks.net/virtual.htm greater than ,  less than corkscrewnet.com greater than , and  less than angelfire.com/electronic/fpeters/ greater than )
The problem of screwing a helical worm into a cork stoppering a bottle neck, then pulling the skewered cork from the bottle neck and finally stripping the pulled, skewered cork from the helical worm has and still titillates inventive genius, entrepreneurial interest, and collector mania. The perfect corkscrew has not yet been invented.
Thomas Lund""s famous bottle grip cork screw patented in 1838 (Great Britain Pat No 7,761) includes a longitudinal cylindrical (French) cage or frame with flanges extending from the bottom end of the cage adapted to locate the mouth of a bottle neck coaxially with the cage. A coaxial shaft, turned by a T-handle, has a cylindrical gear rack shank with a helical worm tip that translates within the cage. A pinion/worm gear secured at the top end of the cage or frame, turned by another T-handle, engages the gear rack shank for pulling the cork from the bottle neck into the cage/frame after it is screwed into the cork
One hundred sixty one years later in 1999, Jeremy H. Gibson obtained U.S. Pat. No. 5,934,160 for a Cork Extractor that differs little from that of patented and manufactured by Thomas Lund. Gibson uses a pivoting lever with a semicircular gear instead of a pinion/worm gear (See Peters, F. Mechanical Corkscrews, Their Evolution, Actions, and Patents (supra at p. 189) to translate the rack shank of the helical worm screwed into the cork. Gibson also elected to use a non-rotating collar cam for imparting torque to the helical worm upon translation of the shaft up and down in the frame using the lever instead of a manually turned T-handle to screw the worm into the cork. A non-rotating collar cam for imparting torque to rotate the helical worm of a corkscrew is a characterizing feature of most bench mounted, barroom cork extractor machines manufactured at the beginning of the 20th century. In fact a collar cam was utilized by Heinrich Fuckel, 1913, in a registered German Design DRGM No. 569,802, for a very similar single lever portable corkscrew machine manufactured in those years by Recknagel of Steinbach-Hallenberg in Schmalkalden. (Also note French Patent No. 448,795, issued Sep. 27, 1912, and comparable corkscrew machines shown in Peters, F. Mechanical Corkscrews, Their Evolution, Actions, and Patents, supra)
The highly coveted Royal Club Corkscrew patented and manufactured in Great Britain in 1864 by Charles Hull features an open steel frame with an annular hub guiding a shaft tipped with a helical worm rotated by a T-handle having a single, S-curved lever coupled to a collar encircling the shaft between the frame and an annular shoulder beneath the T-handle. The S-curved lever rests, slides and pivots against a fulcrum shoulder at the top of the frame to raise the shaft relative to the frame for pulling a cork skewered by the helical worm from a bottle. In some embodiments, a roller bearing is located at the fulcrum shoulder to provide rolling contact between the moving S-curved lever arm and the stationary frame. A graspable, arcuate, rim tang extends coaxially downward from the annular hub at the base of the frame on the diametrically opposite side of the frame, relative to the fulcrum shoulder at the top of the frame. The location of the rim tang first facilitates manual alignment of the annular hub with the bottle mouth and second provides leverage with the bottle for counter balancing the forces of the pivoting sliding S-curved lever as a cork is pulled from a bottle.
To use a Royal Club Corkscrew, one grasps the downward extending rim tang and bottleneck in one hand aligning the mouth of the bottle with the annular hub of the frame, and then with the other hand, first screws the helical worm into the cork using the T-handle, and then pulls the skewered cork by rotating the S-curved lever downward sliding it relative to the fulcrum shoulder. The mechanical advantage provided by the S-curved lever is at a maximum when the helical worm is fully screwed into the cork and decreases as it slides upward pivoting on the fulcrum shoulder lifting the shaft relative to the frame pulling the cork from the bottle.
One hundred seventeen years later, in 1989, Herbert Allen obtained his U.S. Pat. No. 4,253,351 for a highly regarded Cork Extractor functionally quite similar to early 20th century, bench mounted, barroom corkscrew machines. In his patent, Allen describes a system of linked parallel pivoting levers for converting rotational movement of an actuating lever arm to linearly translate a carrier up and down guided by a rod stem extending into through a base frame. The base frame is adapted to be clamped onto a bottle neck. Manufactured and distributed by the Hallen Company of Texas under the mark Screwpull(copyright), the system of linked, parallel pivoting levers converting rotational movement of the actuating lever arm of described by Allen morphed into a traditional linear gear rack parallel to the rotation axis of the corkscrew translating with the carrier driven by an exterior semicircular pinion gear integrated into an end of a lever crank coupled to, and pivoting on the base frame. (See also U.S. Pat. No. Des.415,667, Stephanne de Bergen entitled Lever-type Cork Extractor) The gear rack and rod stem of the Allen machine function as parallel guide rails respectively received in a rack channel and a rod guide passageways traversing through the body of the base frame to align the axis of a freely rotating helical corkscrew with that of a bottle mouth clamped and captured within the base frame between a pair of perpendicularly extending, clamshell-like engagement arms pivotally fastened to the base frame. Similar to Heinrich Fuckel, Herbert Allen utilizes a non-rotating collar cam receiving, and following the helix of the corkscrew to impart torque for rotating the corkscrew as it translates with the carrier.
The unique feature of the Screwpull(copyright) corkscrew machine is a normally biased latching mechanism for capturing and holding the non-rotating collar cam translatable on the guide stem just above where the clamshell engagement arms clamp onto the top of a bottle. The clamped neck and top of a bottle function as a fulcrum for spreading apart the pivoting couplings securing the clamshell engagement arms to the base frame of the machine. Spreading the pair of pivoting couplings retracts dogs latching the collar cam to the base frame, freeing the collar allowing it to translate with the carrier. In a first cycle, the lever crank is pivoted forward xcx9c270xc2x0 translating the carrier downward screwing the worm into the cork and then pivoted backward xcx9c270xc2x0 pulling the skewered cork from the bottle. As the dogs latching the collar cam to the base only retract when a bottle is clamped between the clamshell engagement arms, once the cork has been pulled from the bottle, and the bottle separated from the machine, in a second cycle, the skewered cork and collar cam is translated back down to the base frame in a second forward xcx9c270xc2x0 pivot of the crank, allowing the dogs latch onto the collar cam whereupon the lever crank is again pivoted backward xcx9c270xc2x0 translating the carrier upward. The captured non-rotating collar cam screws the worm out of the cork on the second backward pivot of the lever crank, i.e. strips the cork from the machine. The Allen device requires complex manipulation of the users hands to first grasp the bottle neck with two separately pivotable handles, to grip the two handles with one hand while using the other hand to rotate the operational lever through a rotation that is substantially greater than 180xc2x0.
A single lever, two cycle, manual, corkscrew machine according to the invention is described that includes a translating driver carrying a freely rotating, helical corkscrew, a guide stem parallel the rotation axis of the corkscrew and a gear rack inclined with respect to the rotational axis of the corkscrew. A graspable annular collar with a passageway receives the translating driver guide stem aligning the rotation axis of the corkscrew coaxially with the collar axis. A rotatable pinion gear having a spiral radius is mechanically coupled to the annular collar and engages the inclined gear rack of the driver. A crank bail rotates the spiral radius pinion gear for translating the driver up and down relative to the collar along the rotation axis of the corkscrew with a mechanical advantage that increases as the driver approaches the collar. A non-rotating collar cam coupled to and translatable on the guide stem, receives and follows the helix of the corkscrew for imparting torque rotating the corkscrew when held at a rest position within the annular collar responsive to translation of the driver toward and away from the annular collar. A biased, releasable collar latch captures and holds the collar cam in the rest position within the annular collar releasing it to translate upward with the driver upon an upward xe2x80x98cork pullingxe2x80x99 translation stroke of the driver relative to the collar only when a bottle neck is grasped and held within the annular collar.
An advantage of the single lever, two cycle, manual corkscrew machine according to the invention relates to uniformity of resistance experienced by a user operating the machine in the first cycle, rotating the lever crank forward turning the spiral radius pinion gear translating the driver downward for screwing the helical worm into the cork, then rotating crank backward pulling the cork from the bottle and finally, in a second cycle. rotating the crank forward and back again to strip the cork from the corkscrew.
Other unique features of the a single lever, two cycle corkscrew machine according to the invention relate to optimization of such factors as gear engagement between the spiral radius pinion gear and the inclined gear rack, crank rotation and vertical translation of the driver, and conforming minimum and maximum resistance forces actually encountered to those intuitively expected by a user, manually operating the machine to pull a cork from a favored bottle of wine.
In fact, with the single lever, two cycle, manual corkscrew machine, it is possible to pull a cork with an approximately 180xc2x0 rotation of the crank.
Further advantages of the single lever, two cycle, manual corkscrew machine according to the invention relate to an opposed pair of graspable, arcuate rim tangs extending downward from the annular collar of the machine adapted to be gripped within a user""s hand for clasping and capturing the neck of a bottle. The tangs included inward stepped lands to capture and support different diameter bottle mouth rims stationary with respect to the collar. Like the Screwpull(copyright) by Allen, clasping a bottle neck between the rim tangs releases a biased, releasable collar latch, but in contrast to the Allen machine, a device according to the present invention intuitively forces a user to dynamically counter balance resistance forces encountered as the user first rotates the crank one way with the other hand to drive the corkscrew into the cork and then rotates the crank backward the other way for pulling the cork from the bottle. In particular, the mechanical advantage afforded by the downward graspable rim tangs is in being aligned with the bottle neck which literally is within the grasp of the user""s hand. Figuratively, the user is holding a bottle not a machine, and accordingly, it feels more natural. It is also less likely that the bottle will be dropped out of the machine because one is quite simply less likely to drop a bottle clasped by the neck within a hand, than a bottle captured between a pair of grasped clamshell engagement arms extending perpendicularly from the bottle.
Another aspect of the single lever, two-cycle, manual corkscrew machine embodiment relates to a bail type (looping handle) crank coupled for rotating the spiral radius pinion gear about its pole axis, the loop of the bail encircling the body of the machine in a down xe2x80x9cstorage positionxe2x80x9d before being rotated backward xcx9c180xc2x0 in a first direction for translating (raising) the driver up relative to the annular collar of the machine to the initiating position of the two cycle operation.
Embodiments in accordance with the present invention provide operative advantages over the prior art as discussed above.